The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-05
REPORT ON PROFESSION OF FAITH.

| the Profession of Faith, accompanying
the new creed, which by vote was laid
over to the next session of the General
Convention. The report was as fol-
submitted by Rev. Dr. Tomlin-
son, of Rhode Island
To the UnireTSolist General Contention.
BRETHREN: Your Committee charged
with the Revision of the Profession of
Belief lost little time in proceeding to
the work, and has pursued it with dill
gence, yet with deliberation and pray
erful desire, until the present month.
A matter of such great moment was
not to be determined by our own per-
sonal preferences, else perhaps we could
have reported year ago. Our prob
lem was adequately to express the mind
of the church regarding vital Christian
truths in such phrase as would at once
unity our own membership, serve the
working needs of our growing commun-
ion, and answer the just demand of the
world to know by what ideas and pur-
poses we are controlled.
The first question which presented
itself was this Ought we to attempt
merely to amend in some particulars
the present standard of the church, or
should we frame an essentially new
statement 1t was found, upon can
vassing, that each of our number had
arrived independently at the conclu-
sion that only the latter course would,
in any worthy degree, meet the exist
ing need. 1t was an open secret that
the failure of several former attempts
to amend the second article of the Win
chester Profession had been due less to
the unacceptableness of the changes
proposed, than to the conviction that
the time was fast approaching, if it had
not already arrived, when more thor
ough revision must be made. The very
| terms of the resolution under which
our committee was appointed seemed
to recognize this fact. The weakness
of the ethical statement in the third
article of that symbol had long excited
remark, and probably those who desire
the improvement of this far outnumber
| those who, of themselves, care to dis,
miss the offending word from the sec
ond. Moreover, when we remember
the agony of the garden, the sweat as
of blood upon the cross, and the flames
and racks which have awaited ''the sac
riticial host of Gods elect" along the
centuries, we cannot deem the words,
holiness and true happiness are insep-
arably connected" ," fitting expression
of the truth which they were intended
to convey.
Indeed, could we come to this famil-
lar Winchester Profession as intelligent
strangers, we would probably say, as
many such have said, that its repeated
linking of happiness with holiness gives
unhealthy sanction to the pleasure
seeking prOpensities of the multitude,
forgetful of the stirring sentiment of
the poets - Psalm of Life -
Not enjoyment and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way
But to act that each tomorrow
Finds us farther than to-day"
If once we can forget the veneration
due to this symbol because of its au-
thorship and its early adoption by our
Church, and consider it as though it
were an expression Of the living faith
which we are seeking to nourish in our
own souls and to infuse into the world
for its salvation, we shall inevitably
see and feel that it's faults of omission
are more than all its faults of actual
statement. In vain do we seek in it
for many of those truths which, unit
edly holding and using in our Christian
labors, it is due to ourselves and to the
world that we should put into our au-
thOrized Profession of Belief-that
Profession by which, to no inconsider-
able degree, we must be approved or
condemned at the judgment bar of the
world.
With such convictions and under
deep sense of the weightiness of the
responsibility we proceeded to our task,
and have at last produced the following
declaration, which, with profound hu-
mility, we submit to the consideration
Of the Convention and of the Church:
Here follows the new Statement of
Belief, which was published last week
in the original and amended forms.
Like all other agreements between
men, this profession is the child of
compromise. Yetiti is due to ourselves
and to the interests which we represent
that it be said that in this case the com
promise was not of the truth, but only
of the forms and the extent of its ex-
preston,
Indoetrinal belief We found ourselves
substantially agreed; but our different
sbadings Of thought gave preference for
varying phrases for its embodiment, and
the question of how much or how little
should be embraced made occasion for
mutual concessions.
Without such spirit of br0therly con
cessiOn, it will be impossible TO put at
rest this question of our Church Stand
ard. With that, the day cannot be far